Shaikh Babar T, Haran David, Hatcher Juanita, Iqbal Azam Syed
Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK.
J Biosoc Sci. 2008 Jan;40(1):53-68. doi: 10.1017/S0021932007002118. Epub 2007 May 31.
There is certainly a growing need to justify the significance of studying health-seeking behaviours for designing advocacy campaigns, lobbying for a policy shift and convincing donors to invest in priority areas. Moreover, policymakers need to be encouraged to design evidence-based policies that take into account information relating to health-promoting, -seeking and -utilization behaviour and the factors determining these behaviours. This paper primarily covers the 'methodology' used in the study of health-seeking behaviours and determinants of health services utilization in a predominantly rural district of Pakistan. The paper substantiates that this methodology is comprehensive and reliable, and there is potential for replicating this in similar settings. The approach of Kroeger in his research on the study of health-seeking behaviours, particularly in developing countries, provides the most holistic framework for examining, analysing and interpreting factors and determinants of health-seeking behaviours and health services utilization in developing countries. This study endeavoured to validate Kroeger's framework in a Pakistani setting, exploring all the factors listed through mixed method research, and qualitative supplemented by representative quantitative enquiry. This approach has also helped in understanding the inter-relationship of various factors and drivers of health-seeking behaviours from all angles.
在设计宣传活动、游说政策转变以及说服捐助者投资优先领域方面，确实越来越需要证明研究寻求健康行为的重要性。此外，需要鼓励政策制定者制定基于证据的政策，这些政策要考虑到与促进健康、寻求健康和利用健康行为相关的信息以及决定这些行为的因素。本文主要介绍了在巴基斯坦一个以农村为主的地区研究寻求健康行为和卫生服务利用决定因素时所采用的“方法”。本文证实了这种方法是全面且可靠的，并且有在类似环境中复制的潜力。克罗格在其关于寻求健康行为研究（特别是在发展中国家）中的方法，为审视、分析和解释发展中国家寻求健康行为和卫生服务利用的因素及决定因素提供了最全面的框架。本研究试图在巴基斯坦的背景下验证克罗格的框架，通过混合方法研究探索列出的所有因素，并辅以具有代表性的定量调查进行定性研究。这种方法也有助于从各个角度理解寻求健康行为的各种因素和驱动因素之间的相互关系。
